New Delhi: Describing him as his role model, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the last of three-day BJP conclave on Sunday said that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the only non-Congress Prime Minister of India who led the nation on the path of progress.

The Chief Minister said that it was under Vajpayee's leadership that India had conducted nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998 despite international pressure and stood up to the sanctions imposed against it thereafter.

He added that in the wake of 2002 Godhra riots, Vajpayee had preached him about 'Raj Dharma' and asked him to follow it.

During his address, he took Vajpayee’s name five times saying, “It is very unfortunate that he (Atal Bihari Vajpayyee) is not present here due to his illness. His aspiration is to see BJP forming government at the Centre.”

Furthermore, lambasting the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, he asked the BJP cadres to be ready for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “This (UPA) government has doomed the country,” he added.

It is still unclear that whether Modi will be the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate or not, but the kind of support he is getting from minorities is a matter of concern for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and several other leaders.